Osteria Vecchia

Osteria

by Susan Gordon

There are a bevy of outstanding Italian restaurants in and around Newtown, Bucks County's charming and original county seat. So what is it about Osteria Vecchia that has earned it the top spot on Trip Advisor, and outstanding ratings on a bevy of online dining sites including Yelp and Urbanspoon? Three words: food, family, and ambience. You seldom find an American restaurant that so perfectly captures the sense of what it feels like to sit in a small Italian bistro, enjoy simple but perfect food, and be treated like one of the extended family. Or, as an Italian might tell you: "A tavola non si invecchia"­–at the table with good friends and family, you do not grow old.

Dining at Osteria Vecchia is a truly a joyful experience, thanks to Chef Pasquale Palino, formerly of La Stalla, and his wife and co-owner, Anna. The pair's unforced warmth and innate flair for hospitality, combined with a deep love of southern Italian food, has allowed their modest shopping center location to become a mecca for family celebrations, Sunday dinners, and nights out with friends. Step through the doorway and you're surrounded by la dolce vita, from the ochre-tinted walls to the wine bottle chandeliers to the colorful oil paintings and classic photos that adorn the walls and ceiling. In the warmer months, the Osteria's patio garden offers picture-perfect al fresco dining.

Pasquale's menu is a catalogue of classic Southern Italian dishes. Classics like mussels in red sauce, calamari salad, and chicken parmesan vie with veal ai lemone, gnocchi gorgonzola and spaghetti carbonara, to take center stage. If you're longing for your Italian nonna's favorite dish, it's probably there. What distinguishes the food at Osteria Vecchia isn't necessarily novelty, but rather quality and seasonality. The herb-scented sauces are clean and bright, the hand-made pasta perfectly tender, and the fish fresh and perfectly prepared. And true to Italian tradition, you will probably leave with enough food for another meal.

In Italy, meals traditionally proceed in leisurely courses. There's the antipasti (before the pasta), pasta, primi (the main course) and dolce (dessert). So in true Italian spirit, we started our recent dinner by sampling a variety of hot and cold appetizers. There was a plate of delicate beef Carpaccio, shaved paper thin and served atop a mound of arugula, lightly dressed with truffle oil, shaved parmesan and squeeze of lemon. A special preparation of pork belly, simmered in a savory marinara sauce flavored with serious garlic, was fall-off-the-fork tender. I thoroughly enjoyed a special seasonal treat from Southern Italy-stuffed zucchini blossoms–tender young flowers stuffed with ready-to-ooze mozzarella, dipped in feather-light batter and fried to a golden glow. An ample sprinkling of aged Parmesan made the flavor pop. And last but not least for our first course, we nibbled our way through a light, fresh arugula and calamari salad, perfectly dressed with fruity olive oil, fresh lemon juice and slivers of red pepper.

On to the pasta course. What could be more satisfying than a picture-perfect Frutti de Mare over house made linguini? The seafood­–mussels, calamari, baby clams, and large shrimp­–was mounded so high we could barely see the pasta. But the best part of the dish was a spicy red sauce loaded with shreds of crabmeat and heated with red pepper flakes. Slivers of roasted garlic and sweet cherry tomatoes added additional layers of flavor. There are, in all, seventeen more pasta dishes on the regular menu to satisfy your cravings. Indulge in Gnocchi Gargonzola with walnuts, Pappardelle Bolognese with a traditional hearty meat sauce or Cavatelli sautéed simply with broccoli, garlic and olive oil.

At this point in our meal, totally stuffed but bravely forging onward, we decided to share a baked Bronzino with a side order of sautéed spinach. The fish was presented to us at the table whole, but we opted to have it deboned in the kitchen and served with a simple drizzle of olive oil and fresh lemon juice. Simply luscious.

Again, Osteria Vecchia's entrée menu is filled with the dishes you know and love, from traditional Polli alla Cacciatore, chicken sautéed with onions, mushrooms and red peppers in a light red sauce; to Pollo Osteria with asparagus, wild mushrooms and sundried tomatoes in a white wine sauce; to Vitello Saltimboca, veal scallops topped with prosciutto, eggplant and fresh mozzarella in a light marinara sauce.

As you recall, all proper Italian diners need to complete one last course to get a full Italian food experience, dolce, or dessert. Sweets are the purview of Pasquale's wife, Anna, who allows her creativity to soar with tempting finales like Amaretto Tiramisu and Lemoncello-Marscapone cake dusted with cocoa. The dessert menu is constantly changing according to the seasons and Anna's creative inclinations. And even though it seemed quite impossible, we managed to polish off the aforementioned Lemoncello cake, with cups of espresso and cappuccino. Then we waddled out to our car, but not before stopping to thank and hug our host and hostess because, after all, that's what you do when you're part of the family.

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